Choices, choices
by Kyrial
Summary: Ryu has a moral dilemma, and can't talk about it with the people he needs to. Leads to loads of humor.


This'll be my third story, but the first from an RPG game. Capcom owns Breath of Fire and anything referenced in this story that belongs to them. I do not, nor do I claim to. Anyway, this story is just a random side quest type journey I decided to send the characters on, after the defeat of Death Evan. I'm using the group from BoF: II in this, so you know. On to the adventure! Oh, one last thing- if you like mechanized combat, check out my story in Armored Core. It's named Pandemonium.

--------

Ryu woke up on his bedroll, like any other morning. The campfire had died out due to wind throughout the night. He looked skyward, only to realize it hadn't even reached sunrise yet. He rubbed his eyes to wake himself further, and crept over to the fire pit they had set up. Well, the fire pit Rand had set up. The behemoth slumbered quietly yet, and Ryu didn't want to wake anyone. He grabbed some of the excess wood they had gathered and stoked the fire back to life. As he sat watching the flames, one of the dragon spirits he contained within himself seemed to stir and gather essence. He had been having this feeling ever since the defeat of Death Evan. He thought back to everything that had transpired.

The group had gathered out of coincidence, and a sorry bunch they were. Two hunters from a small town, an arena winner, a farmer, a sorceress, a highlander, a princess, a prince, and a plant. Sorry bunch indeed. The transition from hunter to hero had changed a lot inside of Ryu, but he remained the kind hearted kid they used to know. The thing that bothered him the most though was that he was one of the few left of his kind. He had decided to come back to the surface instead of stay with his tribe, and sometimes he regretted it. Though he loved the company, he wished he could learn the ways of his people. Nina, princess of Windia, had caught his eye months before, during the ritual to gain the aid of the Great Bird. Her sister, Mina, had kept her from completing the ritual and instead finished it herself. Nina would no longer know her sister, except for the memories she retained. Ryu knew that this was the only reason he felt anything for Nina, because she now had the same problem he did. As much as he thought about Nina though, he thought about Katt just as much. His heart was divided, and he knew what he had to do. He had to choose.

During his thinking, Sten and Spar had both woken up, creeping to the fire pit to accompany their friend. Ryu jumped a little at the two popping up next to him, but smiled nonetheless. Sten seated himself near the fire, but kept his distance to ensure his safety. He'd ignited his fur a number of times before, and didn't want to take the chance again.

"Morning isn't even here yet, Ryu… what are you doing awake?" Spar had decided to ask the question first.

"Yea, anyway. We aren't used to seeing you up until Katt or Nina wakes you up", Sten interjected.

"Ehhh, I've been having some strange feelings lately. The spirits in me are restless, and I don't know why. We beat Death Evan, so why aren't they subsiding? Also, I've been having thoughts about people lately….." the young dragon warrior replied. He looked at the Highlander and smiled.

"I knew it! You and Nina, am I right? I see the way you two look at each other."

Spar flicked a vine across the back of Sten's head. "Don't be preposterous. He'd be much more interested in our feline acquaintance Katt. The looks she gives even me can't be ignored, even by the Dragon Master."

Dragon Master. Spar had started calling him that ever since he had killed Ray and been infused with the soul of the Gold Dragon. He never thought himself a Dragon Master. He had rarely thought himself a dragon, but his friend would not be dissuaded.

"Actually, you're both right. I've had thoughts about both of them, but I know one of them will feel hurt and possibly betrayed if I tell the other about this. Try not to mention it to either of them, will you guys?"

Sten looked over at Spar and smiled. Spar tilted his head slightly and then nodded. He looked back at Ryu, and nodded agreement.

"Of course. We swear it."

Ryu nodded thankfully, and stoked the fire some more. Not long afterward, Rand tried to sneak toward the fire without waking his spell wielding opposite, Bleu. He failed. As he stepped over her, she rolled over and almost got stepped on. Rand stumbled and lightly stomped the ground next to her to keep from crushing the half-snake he'd come to admire. That woke her up. He got to the fire quickly, as Bleu stretched and slithered over next to Ryu.

"So boss, what's up? You ain't ever awake this early", Rand said with some conviction.

Bleu had begun to brush out her hair with her fingers as she spoke. "As much as I hate to admit it, the trooper's right. We don't ever see you before sun-up."

The sorceress had always disliked Rand, but had become accustomed to him after their journey. She still had an agenda with his brutish ways, but always found that he had good insight into matters. For that, she admired him.

"It's… nothing. Don't worry about it. Just got some problems with myself, and I'll deal with it."

Bleu looked at him and muttered something to herself. The group knew what she was doing, and Ryu hated it.

"It's the spirits again. They're trying to reach out and tell you something. You know, keeping them bottled up will eventually make you go insane, but that's only my speculation."

Ryu looked at her in amazement. He had thought she'd mention the women troubles he was having, but then realized why she hadn't. She wasn't one of the ones he wanted. She'd have more to lose in that conversation that he would, so she had kept it to herself.

"Yea, I can't seem to comprehend what they want, and it's aggravating me." He looked at the viper-lady and smiled. He hadn't realized just how much she could know about him, and now it began to intrigue him. Wait, what? He thought it through again, and it was right. He was intrigued. As much as he wanted both Nina and Katt, he now realized he wanted Bleu as well. Her looks lost nothing, even when considering her lower half was that of a snake. Her upper half was, to say the least, attention-grabbing. Her pink hair was pulled back and tied down in a bandana, but gave her face a light glow. He looked into her blue eyes and realized just what he could have, had he chosen to think of it sooner. Now that she knew he wanted the other females, she may not even think about giving him a chance. But what's not worth trying for?

"Hey Bleu, can I talk to you later? There's something bothering me that I want to ask you about."

"Yea, sure. But let's get the hunters up and get some breakfast around. I'm starving."

"Good point. Now that you mention it, it's probably a good idea to get some food. You guys may not know this, but if I eat something as a dragon, I taste it as a human. Goos don't taste all that spectacular, and Roach's are almost as bad."

The group, at the disturbing comment, went deathly silent. All of them looked at him in disgust, then shook their heads and laughed.

"It is to be expected. I eat things in my other forms that taste very badly in this one." Spar decided to mention, seeing as how he transformed into three different versions of himself. He of all people knew what it was like to sample a wide array of foods.

"Yea boss, it's not like we don't know what you're talking about, since we've all been transformed at one point or another." The highlander added quietly. His transformation changed him from a thin, brown furry thief into an efreet type warrior. His fur changed color to bright red, and he had no legs, for they were replaced by a tornado of energy underneath him. This, in all reality, was very disturbing, but let him move at an unprecedented speed.

"Uhh.. yea, actually, I don't know what any of you are talking about." Bleu had leaned her head down, as though she felt ashamed to speak. She, out of the entire group, was the only one not able to transform in some way. The shamans the group had saved during their adventure had tried numerous times, with every combination, and none of them would fuse with her. She hadn't spoken of it since then.

"Bleu, don't worry about it. It's just that we know you're the most powerful mage that we have, so we didn't think it'd come as a surprise that you couldn't fuse." Ryu had spoken up first, and covered for the group's stupidity. None of them had thought about the fact that she honestly _didn't_ know what they were talking about. Her food consumption consisted of the same things all the time, and never had a chance to change.

As much as they would have liked to continue the conversation, stomachs had begun to rumble, so Rand went to wake the rest of the party up. As he quietly slipped back to the camp, Sten and Spar started questioning Bleu about her family, something they'd wondered about since they found her.

"Bleu, I would like to ask you some questions, but I do not want to offend."

"Spar, you know I don't get mad _that_ easily. Even I have some control over my emotions."

"Very well. I was wondering if you could tell us about your family. We have talked about things of all sorts, but never has it come up, and Sten and I have been wondering."

The question had seemed to take her by surprise, for her face had filled with blood rather rapidly. She seemed stunned for a moment, and then regained her usual mages composure. As she began to speak, she did so very softly.

"My family…. I haven't really thought about them since I started at the magic school. I never knew my father, or even heard about him from mother. My mom was beautiful, with bright orange hair and a knack for the magic arts. She was the one who taught me my first spell, and helped me buy my first wand. She died, though, when I was very young still. I can only remember certain things about her, but I'll never forget her."

Both Spar and Sten sat and listened, making almost no sound. They were enthralled in her story, for she had never taken this tone before, and they were afraid to miss something.

"I… never tried telling people about my family before because of what I am, but since I've joined with all of you, I no longer feel like an outcast. It seems as though even the hardest training cannot prepare someone for kindness."

She looked up, a tear almost falling from her eye, and wiped it away. She smiled a truthful smile and began to giggle. The two who had wanted to hear of her were now smiling as well, pleased to see her happy.

"You are not an outcast among us, Bleu, and we will never turn you away."

"Yea, it's not like we aren't strange ourselves, ya know?"

Once again she giggled. At that moment, Rand had come walking back to the fireplace, with Bow and Katt in tow.

The two hunters were wiping the crust from their eyes as they sat down next to their partners, slightly aware of who all was awake.

"Alright, what do we want for breakfast?" came from Katt as she stretched her arms outward.

"Yea, cause if we want any more freakin' boars, we're gonna be huntin' for a little while. We've pretty much cleaned this area of them." Bow looked as though someone had thrown him into a dryer and hit the spin cycle.

"Alright, let's just get some decent food. I could care less what it is. Anyone else?" Ryu asked.

No one argued, so Ryu shrugged his shoulders at Bow, indicating they could take down whatever they wanted. Bow looked to Katt, and both smiled. They had an idea, an awful idea, but funny to them.

Not more than 20 minutes after the two hunters had gone out, they drug back three cockatrice. Sten was the first to speak out against this one.

"What in the depths of hell do you think we're gonna eat off these? I dunno 'bout the rest of ya, but I'd rather eat my own shirt than these things!"

"I actually agree with Sten." Bleu had come over just in time to see the dead poultry substitute.

"What the…." Nina's sentence trailed off as she stepped toward the rest of the group. The smile on Bow and Katt's face told her that they'd had this planned for a while.

-------

The next chapter should be up soon, so just review if you liked it, or even if you didn't. Just tell me what you thought.


End file.
